---
title: ECS services should be associated with a load balancer
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
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  Docs > Datadog Security > OOTB Rules > ECS services should be associated with
  a load balancer
---

# ECS services should be associated with a load balancer
 
## Description{% #description %}

ECS services should be associated with a load balancer to distribute traffic, perform health checks, and avoid exposing container instances directly. Daemon services are excluded since they run one task per instance and typically do not receive external traffic.

## Remediation{% #remediation %}

Configure a load balancer for the ECS service by attaching an Application Load Balancer or Network Load Balancer target group. For guidance, refer to [Service load balancing](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/service-load-balancing.html).